Concerns With a Touch of Nostalgia
by mattjesse
Summary: Sora and Riku are both finally home, and they decide to go swimming like the old days. But today, Riku won't be joining them. Will Kairi be disappointed? -for sunflowerb's "us" contest-


Kairi was sitting on the beach, waiting for Sora to arrive. The other day, Kairi had asked the guys to go swimming with her at the island like they used to. Sora said yes, but Riku, being Riku, decided to punish himself for almost killing both of them by grounding himself for half a year. Their attempt to dissuade him had failed, but they had at least managed to persuade him to shorten his self-sentence to a month.

This had obviously disappointed Kairi. She not only wanted to swimming with them, she wanted to hear all about their adventures and the different worlds they had visited. However, a small part of Kairi was happy that Riku wouldn't be joining her and Sora, no matter how much she tried to deny it. Thinking about it now, she blushed.

Kairi heard her phone ring. She pulled it out of her pocket and answered it. "Hello?"

"Hi," a voice said from behind her. Kairi let out a yelp and jumped. She turned around to find Sora bent down right behind her head, grinning and laughing at her. He was wearing a white t-shirt and black trunks, and he was carrying a camoflauge towel.

"You jerk!" Kairi laughed. She stood up as Sora made himself erect.

Sora looked at Kairi as she stood up and blushed. She was wearing a black one-piece and a pair of denim shorts. The suit had a diamond cut out of the middle, at her belly button, and in the back. She'd grown since the last time he'd seen her in a swimsuit, and she looked very... Sora forced himself to think "pretty". "You ready to head out?" he asked.

"Yep."

"Should we take the boats to the island, or swim?"

"Let's take the boats. This way our clothes and towels will stay dry, then we can just put the clothes back on after we dry off."

Sora blushed with embarassment. "Oh right, I forgot about the towels." Kairi laughed. "Should we each take our own boats, then?"

"Nah, let's just take one," said Kairi. "It'll be easier."

Sora held up a fist. "Rock-paper-scissors to see who has to row?" he asked playfully.

Kairi laughed. "Sure." The results were as follows:

Sora: paper

Kairi: rock

"Dang it!" said Kairi. Laughing, they both climbed into Sora's boat. Kairi took hold of the oars and they headed off.

When they arrived at the tiny island, they docked the boat and jumped off the deck. They then proceeded to remove their extra clothes.

Kairi glanced at Sora and nearly gasped out loud. He had several large scars on his torso; straight scars, crooked scars, thin, long scars, thick scars, even several scars that overlapped eachother. Some scars weren't even completely healed, and were still red.

Sora saw Kairi staring at him, and she quickly turned away. His smiling face quickly turned into one of concern. "You okay, Kairi?" he asked her.

"Uh..." Kairi quickly put on a smile. "Yeah, why?"

Sora stood ther looking at her for a bit, then just waved it off. "Nothin, never mind." He climbed back up onto the deck, looked at her, grinned and gave her a wink. Sora then ran full speed to the end of the deck, jumped high in the air, curled into a ball, did several mid-air flips, and fell into the water with a gigantic _SPLASH! _Kairi sheilded herself from the small spray she recieved with one arm, smiling.

Sora's head popped out of the water and shot his arms up into the air. "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOHOOOOO!" he whooped for all the world to hear.

Kairi laughed at him. "You're insane!" she called out to him.

"You have no idea how long I've been wanting to do that!" Sora called back. "You try somethin'!"

Kairi giggled, then climbed onto the deck like Sora. She ran to the end of the deck, jumped as high as she could, did one flip in the air, and did a perfect dive into the ocean.

Sora clapped as she surfaced. "Brilliant, brilliant. That deserves a ten!" he said. Kairi blushed and smiled.

For a while, they played and swam just like they used to. Kairi tried hard to keep her mind off Sora's scars, but it would eventually go back to them. She kept thinking about how he could've gotten them, and every time, the scenarios got worse and worse. Then she thought about something else: what if Riku had as many scars as Sora, or even more? And she had none; her body was completely unscathed. Kairi felt a terrible guilt well up inside of her. She was never around, she'd been safe at home while they, her best friends, had suffered so much. She felt as though she should've been there to suffer with them.

After about an hour or so, they went back up to the shore. Sora layed down on the sand, his hands folded behind his head. Kairi sat next to him in silence.

That silence, however, only lasted about a minute. "Hey, Kairi?" Sora asked her.

"Hmm?" She turned to face him.

"You sure you're okay?"

Kairi looked down, her hair acting as a curtain. She folded her hands in her lap. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. No worries." After she said it, Sora saw a tear hit her wrist.

"Okay seriously, Kairi. What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Sora asked, his voice full of concern. He put a hand on her shoulder.

Kairi was still for a brief moment, then wrapped Sora in a hug. The force and sudden surprise(mostly the surprise) caused Sora to fall backwards onto the sand, and Kairi with him. Kairi just kept holding him, sobbing.

After he got over the shock, Sora hugged Kairi tightly, trying to calm her down. "C'mon, Kairi. You can tell me," he said softly.

Kairi looked at him, her face soaked in tears. Unable to speak, she traced one of his scars that ran from his shoulder to the center of his chest.

"My scars?" Sora asked, confused.

She nodded, still crying. "H-how--" she was barely able to talk. "How much h-have you two go-gone through? Riku's p-probably as b-bad as y-ou. And I have no-othing, not e-ven a s-scratch. I ca-an't help but think about h-how you m-ight have g-gotten them and it s-scares me." She lifted her head up to look at Sora. "I should be there! I should b-be there with you t-two. I s-hould be ge-tting those w-ith you, suffering with y-you!" Her head dropped back down onto Sora's shoulder and continued crying.

Sora looked at Kairi. They had already agreed that she'd come with them on the next journey, but he'd been feeling very uneasy about it. "That's why I don't really want you coming with us," he said. Kairi tilted her head up to see him. She didn't say anything, just listened as she cried. "I mean, I do want you to come, but it's more than just scars, Kairi. It's the fatigue, the home-sickness, going days without food and still having to fight hundreds of enemies. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, especially you." He wiped away some of the tears on her face. "Please stop crying."

"I can't." She was now able to speak more regularly. "I'm sorry, I'm probably getting tears and snot all over you."

Sora laughed. "C'mon, just sit up."

"No."

Sora furrowed his eyebrows. "Huh?"

"I don't want to let you go," said Kairi.

"Why?"

Kairi didn't say anything for several seconds. She was still crying, but she was through sobbing. "I was um.. planning to tell you today, I..."

"You... what?" Sora asked. She was acting strangely, and he was getting curious. "Kai--"

He couldn't finish; Kairi kissed him. He just stared at the top of her head, wide-eyed. It took him 5 seconds before he lowered his eyelids and kissed her back. The kiss lasted 7 or 8 seconds, then they pulled apart. Both of them were blushing like mad. Even kairi had been surprised by the sudden action.

When she'd pulled away, her eyes widened. "I am so sorry, I--"

"No, no. It's fine, really." Sora's eyes were wide, too. "So you what now?"

Kairi turned her head away. "Uh, I..................................l....ove.......................you......." It was barely above a whisper, but Sora was able to hear her. Both of them blushed _hard._

Sora tapped the top of Kairi's head. "Hey." She looked at him, smiling his Sora smile. "Same here." A small smile formed on Kairi's lips. "And you're right, I am covered in your snot."

Kairi's face was of one that showed both amusement and offence, but mostly amusement. "Well excuse me for worrying about you!" she said. They both laughed.

"Um, Kairi?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you let me go so I can clean myself off?"

She giggled. "Sure." She let him go and stood up. After she helped Sora up, he went into the ocean and began washing off her tears with the seawater.

"I'm kinda relieved, actually," he said so Kairi could hear.

Kairi had been washing her face off with the salt water herself. "How come?"

"Well, I saw your drawing in the cave, and I thought either Wakka or Tidus had just put it there as a prank." He turned to look at her. "Guess it was the real thing, huh?"

_That does sound like something they'd do, _thought Kairi. "Yeah, it was the real deal," she said smiling.

=========================================_One month later==========_================================

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You guys are _dating_ now?!" Riku asked in shock.

"Yeah," said Kairi.

"Yessir," said Sora.

Riku looked at his friends in bewilderment. He then mumbled, "Man, ground yourself for a month, you just miss everything!"


End file.
